2020

Official Selection
Documentary Feature
United Kingdom
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
26 minutes
Director:
Various

REIFF 2020

In the middle of an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe a young poet raps in the forest.

My Blood Is Red is a music documentary with a very dark heart. It follows the fortunes of a young indigenous rapper as he tries to make sense of the violence being meted out against his people. His name is Werá and his lyrics are fuelled by the anger and sadness he feels, confronted by the state-condoned genocide of the disenfranchised indigenous of Brazil. On his journey he is adopted by Criolo – one of Brazil’s most famous music artists and godfather of Brazilian hip-hop. He’s also comforted and counselled by Sonia Guajajara, the internationally recognised indigenous leader and charismatic figurehead of the indigenous struggle.

Driven by beats and lyrics we descend into a world of official violence and end up at the largest assembly of indigenous people in Brazil – a demonstration against the government’s barbaric policy of arming farmers, loggers and miners. Thousands of painted and feathered indigenous people – men, women and children – hurl coffins at the Senate building and are repelled with tear gas and rubber bullets.

So actually, this is a film about genocide. And one young artist's response to it.

Because we present as a music documentary we are able to carry this message of the indigenous struggle to commercial and world-music audiences that otherwise might never hear of it. That is the power and the duty of the documentary form – to take an audience on an emotional journey that leaves them with a deeper understanding of the variety, and yet also the shared space of the human experience.

Like Werá says: “We are all Guarani Kaiowa”.

He’s still rapping in the forest today …

As it burns down around him.

Official Selection
Narrative Feature
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
29 minutes
Director:
Lee Cummings, Mitchell Altieri

REIFF 2020

While skateboarding, a kind hearted teenager, Dylan, crashes into a beautiful young woman who secretly turns out to be the World Famous Popstar, Bebe A. Love. Keeping her identity under wraps, Dylan takes Bebe to his best friend’s house for help. While he and his group of friends try to help this mysterious woman, unexplained events begin to occur within the home. And they only intensify when Bebe’s handler, Anton, shows up at their door and demands the teenagers return her immediately. When Dylan refuses fearing for Bebe’s safety, he unleashes a barrage of dire consequences that turns a fun graduation party into a night of living hell.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
Iran
Runtime:
17 minutes
5 seconds
Director:
Siamak Kashefazar

REIFF 2020

Reza and Tooba are a young couple that are struggle to pay their home mortgage. Reza enters into a gambling game in order to make payments, but he loses his wife without knowing it. When he returns home and understands the depth of the tragedy of losing his wife, he looks for a way to escape, however it’s too late and his benefactors have come to collect their prize.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
11 minutes
Director:
Thomas Southerland

REIFF 2020

A woman recalls a fateful road trip taken thirty years earlier with her first love.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
Australia
Runtime:
21 minutes
42 seconds
Director:
Joel Kohn

REIFF 2020

When a young girl discovers a mysterious antique mirror in the basement of her ailing grandmother’s house, she accidentally opens a window between time that allows her to cross over into war-torn Nazi-occupied Poland.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
India
Runtime:
6 minutes
40 seconds
Director:
Jitendra Rai

REIFF 2020

Millions of children are engaged in child labour in India, in an increasingly growing number every year. And with that, millions of childhood dreams are never realised as a result of a lack of education. Baitullah is the story of one such child, with a dream, surviving in the maddening metropolis of Mumbai, waiting for someone to notice.

Official Selection
Italy
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
36 minutes
Director:
Ulisse Lendaro

REIFF 2020

Camilla lives in a quiet northern Italy town. She’s seventeen, well-mannered, gets good grades and has a little dream: to become a ballet dancer.
When she doesn’t pass the audition for an important ballet college, she blames Sara. She’s her friend and a ballerina who also tried out for the audition. Sara was admitted. Not only Camilla’s convinced she sabotaged her, but she’s also got the proof.
Nothing is as it seems, and the plot spirals into disconcerting and tense situations to the point that Camilla concocts a horrifying vendetta against her friend.
Doubts, set backs, twists and turns will be part of this vendetta, which will set off a series of unforeseen consequences.

Official Selection
Narrative Feature
Iran
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
20 minutes
Director:
Farhad Najafi

REIFF 2020

Like New York, Tokyo، Mumbai and all the big cities around the world, Tehran has also its own night life, mischievous and underground. In a night at Tehran, a 30 yrs girl, running away from her birthday party, looking for happiness, gets into a night cab, unaware of how her life is going to change forever.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
United Kingdom
Runtime:
14 minutes
59 seconds
Director:
Dekel Berenson

REIFF 2020

Living in war-torn Eastern Ukraine, Anna is an aging single mother who is desperate for a change. Lured by a radio advertisement, she goes to party with a group of American men who are touring the country, searching for love.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
9 minutes
Director:
Sheldon Wong Schwartz

REIFF 2020

A creative writing instructor (Jennifer Morrison, "Once Upon a Time") at a juvenile detention center finds common ground with a troubled student (Madison Wolfe, "I Kill Giants") yet quickly finds herself in great danger when she decides to help her.

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